Before the light comes darkness. Before the dawning, darkest night.

Holy Week is wild ride of highs and lows, anguish and exultation.

Before we celebrate the bright joys of Easter,

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday invite us

to spend some time in the shadows,

to open ourselves to the mysteries of Christ’s suffering,

and to open our own sufferings to the presence of the living God.

A prayerful musical meditation while reading this issue.

Click here for Tenebrae, the choir.

This Easter will be like none other. During a year of pandemic disease, death, and distancing, many of us have cocooned in tomb-like darkness, alone, separated from loved ones. We look for a resurrection from oppression, a resurgence of new energy, and a revival of Spring-like freshness in our lives. We want to quell the lamentations of suffering and sing joyful praises this Easter. We await the glory of the Risen Christ this Easter Morning.

Easter will be here soon. But first we may to go into the darkness, fully appreciate the redemptive power of the passion of Jesus and renew our hope in salvation won for us by the blood of the cross. Tenebrae is a rich ritual experience to enter the reality of darkness, spiritually, with the crucified Jesus. Tenebrae (Latin for darkness, shadows) is a prayerful extinguishing of candles until only one candle remains, that being the Christ candle. Even it is removed from the prayer space and hidden for a time. After a series of Psalms and Lamentations of Jeremiah, the gospel verse, “Then Jesus cried with a loud voice and breathed his last” is proclaimed. In the now darkened space, the “strepitus” or loud noise (wood blocks and books banging) symbolizes the confusion and terror of the death of Jesus, his descent to the dead, and the trembling earthquake. Then one lighted candle, the Christ candle, returns. With no hymns, prayers, or blessings, everyone leaves in silence.

There are many variations of Tenebrae, including praying the Liturgy of the Hours during the early mornings of the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday) while extinguishing the candles. Each reveals elements of these sacred days. The Tenebrae Service I experienced 30 years ago deeply etched in my soul Jesus's supreme act of suffering, of his entering dire and deathly darkness.

Maybe there is a Tenebrae service at your church or online. Links below are some helps to find an online service. May you be blessed during this holiest and most solemn time of the year. May you find the light of Christ in your darkness. May you be refreshed of mind and renewed of spirit.

Be inspired by the Holy Week Festival - Tenebrae - the Choir

Below: Haydn- Seven Last Words, Tenebrae Choir

G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete.”[1] Think of that: An almighty God would be incomplete! What could possibly be missing?

There are hints to the answer in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where he writes that “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” in Christ (1:19, NRSV), and then goes on to repeat, “For it is in Christ that the Godhead in all its fullness dwells embodied” (2:9, REB). What hints?, you ask. In the same sentence in which Paul first mentions that all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ Jesus, he goes on to speak of Christ “making peace through the blood of his cross” (1:20).

Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo may have said this most clearly: “Jesus displayed on the cross is nothing but utter helplessness and weakness…. The reason is that love, in terms of the world's values, is forever vulnerable and helpless…. Jesus, powerless on the cross, is the very symbol of love – nay the very incarnation of love.”[2]

[1] G. K. Chesteron, “God the Rebel,” from Orthodoxy (quoted here from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Plough, 2003), p. 165.

[2] Shusaku Endo, A Life of Jesus, as quoted in Susan A. Blain, et al., eds, Imaging the Word: An Arts and Lectionary Resource, Vol. 3 (United Church Press, 1996), p. 189.

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